I know it’s a stretch at this point, but I keep looking for evidence their budget deficits are large enough to support GDP at current (depressed) levels. And yes, further austerity works against this. French Industrial Production Unexpectedly Rose 1.5% in August October 10 (Bloomberg) — French industrial production unexpectedly rose in August, driven by [...]

I know it’s a stretch at this point, but I keep looking for evidence their budget deficits are large enough to support GDP at current (depressed) levels.

And yes, further austerity works against this.

French Industrial Production Unexpectedly Rose 1.5% in August

October 10 (Bloomberg) — French industrial production unexpectedly rose in August, driven by manufacturing of transport equipment. Production gained 1.5 percent in the month from July, Insee said.

Italian Industrial Output Unexpectedly Rises 1.7% in August

October 10 (Bloomberg) — Italian industrial production unexpectedly rose in August. Output rose 1.7 percent from July, when it contracted a revised 0.1 percent, Istat said. Production fell 5.2 percent from a year earlier on a workday-adjusted basis, the 12th annual decline. The euro region’s third-biggest economy will probably contract 2.4 percent this year and 0.2 percent next, the government said last month. Industrial production fell 0.9 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, employers lobby Confindustria predicted on Oct. 1. Output declined 0.3 percent in September from the previous month, according to the survey. Istat had originally reported a 0.2 percent drop industrial production in July.

Same goes for the UK:

U.K. Third-Quarter GDP Jumps the Most in Five Years, Niesr Says

October 10 (Bloomberg) — The U.K. economy grew at its fastest pace in five years in the third quarter after a rebound from one-off disruptions in the prior three months, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said. Gross domestic product rose 0.8 percent, compared with 0.1 percent in the quarter through August, Niesr said. Underlying growth was weaker than suggested by the headline number, Niesr said. Stripping out distortions stemming from June’s extra public holiday for Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, it measured the economy’s pace of expansion as closer to between 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent. “The strength of the figure for the three months to September is largely an artefact of special events,” it said.